Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-08-04
THE DEADLY CORSET,
Tight Lacing Adds a Red Nose to the Com
nj.

in copy Of the London Telegraph lately |
over is worth reproducing: Ca q re-
cent Thursday, according to that Jour |
nal, an inquest wss held on q single |
woman, tifty-f0ur years OF age, residing |
IN the GlOuster road. Regents park, who |
had died suddenly on the preceding Sun
deY evening as she WIS leaving Park !
chapel The house surgeon Of the North {
west London Hospital, who had made
an examination of the body, testified be
fore the COroEer that she WIS Z woman
who hsd laced very tightly. n fact she
must at ell tines have found ordinary
respiration q task Of extreme d.liicul:y,
and ultimately, the lungs not Dei,g 81
lowed free play, 8 blood vessel burst, (
producing synCOpe and deGth. The j1ry
returned 2 verdict in scrordsace with
the evidence, ard we are entitled to
ask whether the most recent addition 10
tue list Of victims Of tight l3cjcg Will
have any is1lIe1Ce in Saying the p-eva-
lence OF barblroUs and nisch.evous
fashion. [. Is mucl, however, tina. ell
the hemiliss Of the medical faculty, rgi5-
Grated over ard over sEaig, will fell to
psrs uade ladies' that tight l2cicg /, ! sure
means Cf running their health. sad very
often has fatal results, while ]! VIII Oe
quite as difficult TO persuade the fair sex
int the vast m.i Jrity Of sensible men
look upon Gu "lOur gliss' or wasp"
waist rs not only ug,y but ridiculous.
The instrument OF construction applied
TO the chest was an invention Of Geprayed
vanity, win a view Of giving to Ire fe-
male figure supposed li5htness wiicn it
ought not 10 possess, or 10 conceal some
deformitieS, which Says very frequently
aggrayate instead Of alIayirg.
Jean Jacques Rousseau, with all the
power OF his genius and all the warmth Of
the interest which he took III youth, ex-
lp0sed the lameuta5ie corruption Of taste
which asserts that the figure is excellent
| in proportion to the waist. Tle pIIIO5O-
| pler of Geneva exercised more social ia
huenCe, perhaps, in his time than any 9th
er writer in Europe, and for 81 while stays
went out of fashion IN France. Stiff cor
sets were still worn by the ladies' of tie
| old court, but sensible mothers came to Q
! common agreement that their daughters
shOnld subject themselves to this v0lu1-
tsry punishment at IS Iste g period as
| possible, and not UCtil their wedding Day
were they allowed TO wear stays
The revolution swept away the corset
altogether. as well as the hoop peltiC0ats,
/ out stays sgain made their appearance
toward the emu Of the first empire.
very harmless sfIiT, scarcely broader
than the fact:p mamillare5" of the RO
maUs, was the imperial bodice for waists
were then worn excessively short, and
the stays were without bu3ks, stiff pieces
of WhalebCne or steel plates. Modified,
however, as they were the strong com
non sense Of Napoleon rGVJlted SgGnst
the reintr0ducdon Of the garment.
Corylsart," said the ruler, whose busi-
ness It was TO knOT everything, TO his
physician, "tle corset IL CJquetrv OF the
worst taste; it fortunes women sud nal
treats their progeny; it means tr.vol.ty:
it heraiGs dscadenCe."
! These words were iull Of s6eacitv, but
When the mysterious d.crees Of fashion
DEGREES which $40 as 0Ccait as those Of
fate-orought about Tie revival Of long
waists, tight stays became once more the
mole, and the female chest was bruised
by that dreadful instrument of torture,
the steel Dusk, which had originally been
brought into France ia 1892 by Catherine
de Medici. The Dusk was G long, fiat,
rigid strip of wood or Whalebcne, and
sometimes of metel. The old surgeons,
RGderiCk and Ambrose Pare, hGt iu-
Weighed against it; Montaigne and Il olau
had laughed ct il; the Able Outlet had
preached against j., and the Emperor
Joseph had stTiYen TO drive it out of
Austria by Ordaining that all women
leading immoral lives should wear STAYS
with stiff busks. Medical warnings,
satire, sermons, ediCts OF police, had sll
been in vain. In the present epoch, al
though tight Iacing is fearfuIly preya-
-l SF,fr TO 10 ell IL
volaTies every year, the Dusk has ceased
to be sn instrument OF torture.
1t is en- integral part of the corset,
whereas the old busk, which w:s cover
ed with channels leather, could be made
to slide in and out In q vertiCle tuck in
front of the stays. The modern busk is
fastened and divided down the middle
like the tree of Mexican saddle; it is
made of very flexible steel, which should
giveg to every movement of the body,
and per Sc it IS wholly innoxiOus p0r-
ton Of the corset. The mischief
and the peril are at the back. Fifty
years ago London staymaker named
Mills introduced an improved formation
of steymaking, the texture elastic, Rnd
wholly 5anishing upright pieces; but the
greatest Of evils escaped, and continues
to escape, remedy. Nearly all stayma-
kers render the structure of the corset
sufficiently narrow to allow of its being
drawn at the back fer too tight for the
health CT the wearer.
Sensible ladies leave the permanent
laCing of the interval al the back Of theii
stay untouched. The interval, accord
ing to a high authority, should not be
less than an inch in breadth, SC
IS to leave the spinal column uncov-
cred by the cOrse'. Ladies, however, VINO
lack common sense strain, tug, pull ant
haul a. the lscing ct the back of 1heil
; stays, or they hold on to g horiz 1ntal bar
put up in their dressing room while theil
-; maids tug, pull and haul st the stay lacel
until the requisite "hour-glass" OF
. "wasp" effect is produced. Are there
, any other results, it may be asked, from
3 this elegant process of garrotting the fe
; male form? There are good many, anC
:. we will venture TO enumerate few.
: On the authority of the most eminen
' physicians and surgeons OF the last TIVE
r. generations it may be stated that in tn
/ head tight lacing produces giddiness
, headache, pain in the eyes, ringing in tn,
i ears and bleeding at the nose
- IJoL